Originally published at: The only Star Trek phaser rifle ever made is up for auction. Starting bid: $250,000 | Boing Boing
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I guess that won’t be on my Christmas list.
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Bit pricey, but worth it if you got the kind of cheddar laying around.
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Does it come with additional power packs?
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I remember that ep, especially the creepy-ass contact lenses:
Won’t be grabbing my wallet, though.
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I remember seeing it in the episode and then never again. I figure they dropped the rifle concept after they realized how unwieldy it is and that their actors faces would be obscured if the rifle was held in a rifle position. In the stills on the auction site you can see that both Kirk and Spock have the butt tucked under their arm. Handheld phasers would be much easier to carry and “use” while not causing awkward blocking in the shots.
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I don’t get what that “Star Trek Phaser” page of text is about - it seems like it’s describing a potential toy (“The second tube might propel atomic aircraft. The third tube might fire ping pong balls or other.”), but that is still really weird. It’s more like a child’s fever dream about their ideal toy, described while high on drugs, typed up by an adult who added their own flourishes.
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The props from the Next Generation era generally looked less cheesy and better constructed but they still kind of lost some of the magic along the way. It’s a lot easier imagining a kid wanting to play with the old-school phaser rifle than the later ones.
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However, Voyager’s “Compression Phaser Rifles” always seemed a good design nod to the original TOS rifle.
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Yep.
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Based on the other images on the auction site, I think they are notes from the manufacturer that made the rifle for the show. Probably just some wild ideas thrown out for it’s initial design. (I do love how they spell it ‘Faser’)
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You are free to move about the Galaxy!
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Careful, shift happens.
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The hand-held phasers used in TNG were worse than those used in TOS from an ergonomics perspective. The way one has to grip the phaser is awkward and would be difficult to aim. Good thing they have no recoil.
Although I suppose the TNG phaser causes the device to point up when held comfortably meaning that pointing requires conscious effort, so if you point the thing you probably intend to use it.
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I guess the idea was that a recoilless energy-based weapon would be more like pointing a flashlight than a pistol? The Next Generation phasers from season one just looked like Dustbusters though.
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It looks like a portable version of The Most Important Device in the Universe!
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I still want a disintegrator.
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I think the context is misleading and weird here, though, which is part of why I’m confused. Everything about it indicates “toy” - e.g. the bit about potentially shooting suction cup darts and “impact cap” missiles* (which were totally '60s/'70s toy cliches). I have a vague recollection of a phaser toy that, nonsensically, shot out flying saucer projectiles, so some of these ideas made it into products.
*A projectile that when it hit the ground a firing pin would strike a cap that was in the head and make a bang. Normally these were the toys themselves, so a gun that shot these would have been extra fancy:
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Just avoid the Acme model.
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